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Scrambled Eggs with Cream and Tomatoes

Scrambled eggs cooked with butter, cream, salt, and canned tomatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Scrambled Eggs with Cream and Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Melt the butter in a chafing dish until hot.

  2. Beat the eggs and mix with cream and salt.

  3. Pour the egg mixture into the chafing dish and cook until it begins to scramble.

  4. Add the canned tomatoes and cook until the eggs reach the desired consistency.

  5. Season to taste and serve.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + tomatotop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Cream + tomatotop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,034 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into soft curds that form the body of the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and keeps the eggs from sticking as they cook.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness, giving the scrambled eggs a creamier texture.
Canned tomatoes
Add moisture and a bright, acidic flavor to the eggs.

The step that matters

Cook the eggs gently until they reach the desired consistency. Egg proteins tighten quickly with high heat, so eggs cooked too hard become dry and rubbery. Cooking slowly and stopping while the eggs are still soft keeps them creamy.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, cream):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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